"Million Dollar Arm" contest winner Rinku Singh (left) watches runner up Dinesh Patel throw a baseball at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, Friday, May 2, 2008. (Photo: Mustafa Quraishi/AP Images)

India's Prize Pitchers

Two baseball beginners from India make their debut at spring training

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Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel have the same goal as hundreds of other Major League Baseball hopefuls who checked in to spring training camps this week. The two pitchers want to snag a spot on a professional baseball team.

But the path Singh and Patel traveled to professional baseball is anything but typical. Before last year, the 19- and 20-year-old, respectively, lived far away in India and had never picked up a baseball.

The two earned their spots at spring training by winning the Million Dollar Arm contest—actually a reality TV show—to find the young man who could throw the hardest and most accurately in all of India.

J.B. Bernstein said he modeled the show after American Idol.

"We basically created 'Indian Idol,' but we took out the singing and put in pitching," Bernstein told ABC News.
 
Singh won the contest with a throw that clocked in at 89 miles per hour (mph). Patel was first runner-up with a throw of 87 mph. His pitch was good enough for him to make the trip as well. More than 30,000 young men competed for the first prize: $100,000 in cash and a trip to the U.S. to try out for a group of Major League Baseball scouts.

Before the power throwers could show off their skills to baseball scouts, however, they had to learn to play the game. Singh and Patel moved to Los Angeles last May to train at the University of Southern California.

Tom House, a former Major League Baseball pitching coach and player, taught Singh and Patel the basics.

"They had never played the game, they couldn't catch, they couldn't throw, they didn't know. . . anything that had to do with baseball," House said.

The pitching hopefuls worked with House seven days a week for five months. They tried out for a number of Major League scouts in November, and both signed contracts with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Singh and Patel are the first Indian-born players to sign professional baseball contracts in the United States. "To have these boys do what they did is nothing short of a miracle," House said. "But it was an earned miracle."

Pirates' coaches are now supervising Singh's and Patel's development at spring training camp in Bradenton, Florida. But it could be a few years before either pitches in his first Major League Baseball game.

When the Pirates start their regular season in April, Singh and Patel will remain in Bradenton to continue developing their skills with the Pirates' minor league pitching coach, Miguel Bonilla. They will probably be assigned to the Pirates' rookie league team in the Gulf Coast League.

But the Million Dollar Arm winners have already impressed the Pirates with their strong work ethic. "They've got a chance," Pittsburgh director of player development Kyle Stark told Major League Baseball's news service, mlb.com. "I understand what our scouts saw. [Singh and Patel] are definitely willing to do whatever it takes. They are happy to be here and are happy to respond to challenges."

When they aren't at baseball practice, Singh and Patel are blogging about their big-league adventures at the Million Dollar Arm blog. They hope that their experiences will help make baseball popular in their home country.

For now, it's clear that Singh has embraced the Pirates' team spirit. "First, I want the Pirates to win many games," he told mlb.com. "And I want to be good pitcher, a Pirates pitcher."

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Singh and Patel didn't know how well they could pitch until they tried out for Million Dollar Arm. What special skills have you discovered by trying something new? Tell us on the Scholastic News Online Blog!

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